Wonderland
by thosepedanticlunatics archive
Summary: Role Reversal!AU. After the backwards courting of her coworker escalated into multiple counts of abduction and a full-blown psychotic episode, Alice Pleasance is finally apprehended. Takes place at the end of Mad as a Hatter. One-sided Alice/Jervis and completely unnecessary Jervis/Jonathan because I said so HA.


**Content Warning:** Discussion of abduction and mind control

**Ships:** One-sided Alice/Jervis; extremely shoehorned Jervis/Jonathan, so help me God

[SO YEAH. Again, this is another nugget from my old Hattercrow blog, which is my excuse for why this ship is randomly, needlessly, mind-numbingly present in this drabble. Everything I touch turns to shipping. The fic itself based partially on an abandoned collaboration I did with a friend (she's actually the one who requested that I write this) and a small thread held between "modmad" and "natassstya" on tumblr a year or two ago, in which Alice is the crazed directionless obsessive and Tetch is a sweet but doddering scientist who is decidedly not creepy. Mostly. On a closing note, this is very much drawn from Hatter's intro episode in B:TAS but I didn't use the B:TAS designs for either him nor Jonathan, so this is in universe purgatory, a lil'bit. It's only a passing mention though, so not that big a deal.]

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_'It's not fair. It's just not fair.'_

In the wake of a wretched struggle (one that may or may not have involved thievery, deceit, brainwashing, and a giant bronze ax) Alice Pleasance found herself trapped under the claw of The Jabberwocky's felled monument, yet another thing she'd destroyed in the midst of her quest for affection. Having become so frenzied as she did, Alice had completely forgotten about Batman's potential intervention. His presence in Gotham was ubiquitous, after all, but she didn't think it was _that_ ubiquitous. Clearly she was wrong, and now her prize, the urbane and eccentric Jervis Tetch, was farther out of reach than ever, but still sitting blindly in the brain-dulled stupor inflicted by his own technology.

Mr. Tetch had been receiving endless kudos for his recent invention, but its intended purpose was not mind control. That didn't matter; all his steadfast secretary had to do was tweak it a little. She proofread all of his grants, after all, and she kept his blueprints together in a tidy file. They showed her the way.

She looked on miserably as Jonathan Crane - the damn creep, another big name in Gotham's scientific community _of course_—approached and freed Alice's estranged love interest from his mental prison, removing the oversized stovepipe hat she had previously bugged.

Didn't he see? She'd made him The Mad Hatter, she'd made herself Alice Liddel, just like he liked. Didn't he want Wonderland? Didn't he get it?

Clearly not. The secretary (certainly _ex_-secretary now) kept her eyes glued to her rival.

Professor Crane was ginger to the point of hesitance, handling the offending accessory as if it might explode at any moment. His fiancée came to moments later, blinking out of his daze like a drowsy child.

Alice wondered idly if killing the academic when she had the chance would have swung the odds in her favor. God, she would have loved to. So successful, so composed, his stately visage made her sick.

Once fully lucid, Jervis cried his partner's name with an emotional inflection Pleasance wished he'd reserved for her and not someone else. The pair embraced, with the willowy professor practically on his knees for the sake of offering his shoulder's crux.

She stared. She felt totally crushed. This wasn't helped when Tetch picked his little head up only to meet his unwanted pursuer's fixed focus. His doe-ish eyes grew wider still, and he buried his face into his intended spouse's narrow chest. He just wanted this night to be over.

The feeling seemed mutual all around, and deep dark kohl streaks ran across Alice's cheeks.

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[The Hat/Crow healthy relationship!AU is slowly killing me. Maybe reverse!Alice will later go on madcap adventures with reverse!Sherry Squires, who's gimmick is probably something in the line of shaming her victims into submission, rather than frightening them. Anyways I'm dead. I'm trash. Hahahahaha.]


End file.
